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I joined the beautiful Royal Princess in Rome recently to try cruising a different way. With most cruise passengers choosing the cruise line’s own shore excursions, we struck out to find some personalised, hands on shore adventures with a difference! But first, though, a little about the ship… Read more →

So I’ve had an absolutely MAD bout of travelling and can’t wait to update you on all the exciting things we’ve been up to. Firstly, we’ve just returned from a lovely two week family cruise on Celebrity Eclipse, Celebrity Cruises’ beautiful Solstice class cruise ship, where we sailed from Southampton and visited Gibraltar, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. It was our first time as a family on a Celebrity Cruise (Mr E and I did a wine cruise on Celebrity Infinity a while ago) and we did wonder what it would be like to spend two weeks in a relatively small stateroom as a family (as it turned out, we were treated to extra room, which was fab). Here’s how we got on:

Last month, Sam and I were lucky enough to take a trip on Carnival Vista, Carnival’s brand new cruise ship, taking only its second sailing. We boarded on a beautiful sunny day in Barcelona and travelled down the coast to Marseilles, then Livorno, Civitavecchia and Naples, with a fun day at sea before disembarking in Heraklion, Greece. So come with me for a tour around bella Vista – I’ve got everything you need to know!

In the last part of our P & O Britannia foodie cruise diary (see part one and part two here), it’s all about the gorgeous Eric Lanlard. Erica and I specifically chose the cruise because Eric was due to be on board. All the Food Heroes spend some time on the ship on various cruises, and it’s a chance for guests to book different masterclasses and hosted dinners with them.

So, catching up with part one of our foodie cruise on board P & O Britannia, then, having eaten ourselves silly, discovered La Rochelle and L’Il de Ré, done a bit more eating, a bit of dancing and had a busy day in Bilbao, we decided to have a chilled out evening in The Glass House, the brainchild of Food Hero and frankly adorable wine expert, Olly Smith.

So last time I told you all about Quantum’s incredible technology. It really has transformed nearly every aspect of the guest experience, from super speedy check in and luggage tracing, right down to the dining. Guests can reserve at iQ stations, by the new app, by phone or in person and with 18 restaurants and 14 bars to choose from, there’s something for everyone. Table staff take orders on a tablet, keeping them where customers need them most, in the restaurant, and this technology will track you no matter where you eat, so if you love a glass of champagne while you order, or if you have any specific dietary requirements, this will all be logged and the information will be available to each restaurant when you arrive.

If you’re a food lover, eating and drinking are naturally a huge part of deciding where to go on holiday. I, myself was persuaded into staying in a massive half board hotel in Gran Canaria (something I wouldn’t normally do) by my Dad’s stories of epic Torres wine and amazing seafood restaurants along the coast in Maspalomas. I wasn’t disappointed.

On a Royal Caribbean holiday, the food is all-inclusive, meaning that you can eat in quite a few restaurants, including the VERY posh main dining rooms, without forking out (see what I did there?) any extra cash. Obviously if you’re going to order wine you have to pay for it, but RCI provide various wine packages, so you can pre-order wines that are then delivered to you at your table. If you don’t drink all the wines you can have them corked and saved, (which means that you can have a white and a red open at the same time) or take them back to your cabin.

I was really impressed by the wines on board. At various parts of our journey, we tried the following (excuse some of the pics – it can be dark in restaurants):

Cline Viognier 2011: peachy, fruity and yet crisp with an almost flowery scent. This was absolutely delicious.

Another Sonoma white, this Mac Murray Pinot Gris (Pinot Grigio in Italy) had similar peachy pear flavours with a hint of spice.

I’ve had this Peter Lehmann Weighbridge before (love Shiraz) and this didn’t disappoint: gorgeous, soft and fruity

My absolute fave aboard the ship. This Belle Glos Pinot Noir (Clark and Telephone Vineyard) is almost purple with a distinctive waxed bottle. Smooth and full bodied. Yum.

There are also several different dining options should you wish to pay a tiny bit extra. The lovely burger joint, Johnny Rockets where the waiters danced and sang, is definitely worth a trip – order the chocolate malt and burgers as big as your head! There’s no booking, so you might have a wait in the queue, but it’s only an extra $3.95 to eat here and it’s well worth it.

The Italian themed Portofino was our favourite restaurant by far. In fact, we loved it so much we went back again on the last night. The waiter was great fun and a real wine buff (although some of his recommendations were slightly out of our league!). We joked that we ate so much beef we were going to walk off the ship mooing, but it was just soooo good. The filet mignon was out of this world tender, and we also had massive fish skewers with salmon, prawns, lobster and scallops. Delicious ($20 extra charge per person).

That forgotten creme brulee!

Chops Grille is another high end restaurant where you pay $25 per head to dine. The surroundings again are really sumptuous – on a par with a really nice London restaurant, and the food again was excellent. We went for the beef again (I know, I know), but there were all sorts of other options too, honestly. This is where we had the amazing Belle Glos (two bottles in fact) and where I couldn’t remember that I’d had a dessert until, thumbing through my pictures from the night before, I came across a flaming crème brûlée!

Piping meringue onto ice cream for a ‘baked Alaska’ type dessert.

We also had a chance to meet Executive Chef Garry Thomas and visit the ship’s galley (a rather insignificant term for the cavernous kitchen!). Garry and his chefs serve more than 18000 meals a day and we got the impression that Garry literally runs a tight ship. We loved that occasionally in the main dining room, the chefs were introduced by a Master of Ceremonies and came out into the dining room to rapturous applause. Well deserved, in my opinion.

I’ve also heard rumour that Royal Caribbean do wine cruises. That’ll be me next, then..

For a similar cruise aboard Liberty of the Seas (sailing out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA) prices start from £288 per person for a 4-night Western Caribbean cruise, calling at Cozumel, Mexico before returning to Fort Lauderdale. Departs 12 December 2013 and includes meals and entertainment on board and all relevant cruise taxes/fees. Obviously this doesn’t include flights. We flew British Airways to Miami.